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The state Board of Regents lauded the current makeup of the new panel, which will seek out finalists for the UI presidency. Clashes between university leaders and regents characterized much of the previous search, but now, officials want to move on and ensure that the recruitment process remains open and the confidentiality of candidates protected.

Different right now in this new search panel, expected to total roughly 12 people, is the absence of a regent. Committee chairman and UI College of Dentistry Dean David Johnsen said he would defer to regents on whether they would serve.

But Regent President Michael Gartner said the committee's composition was up to Johnsen and that he himself hopes to approve "whomever [Johnsen] wants and selects."

"I think we've asked the dean to come back with his recommendations," Gartner said in response to a question about whether he would push for regent representation on the panel. "I doubt regents will have anything to say about the matter."

Iowa City-based Regent Robert Downer also said he would be "perfectly fine" with not having a regent on the committee.

The previous 19-member search panel, scrapped in November and its finalists for the UI presidency eventually rejected, featured four regents, most prominently Board President Pro Tem Teresa Wahlert as its chairwoman.

Johnsen, who is the longest-serving dean at the UI and has led previous searches for other university administrators, was tapped last month to lead the new search.

The dentistry dean said he has already received at least several dozen suggestions - both in and outside academic circles - for the new UI president, who is slated to be named by July 1.

The choice to hold on-campus interviews for finalists - hallmarks of previous presidential searches that allowed the UI community to meet candidates face-to-face - will also be up to the committee, Johnsen said.

"That decision will be actively discussed both inside and outside committee," he said. "We will welcome that kind of discussion."

Johnsen declined to comment whether the four rejected candidates - which included current UI Provost Michael Hogan - would be reconsidered.

The search firm Heidrick & Struggles will again assist the dozen charged with sifting through those vying to become the next president.

Former UI College of Business Dean Gary Fethke is serving as the university's interim leader after previous UI President David Skorton left last summer to take the helm at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

Meanwhile, newly inaugurated Gov. Chet Culver has a chance to significantly alter the nine-member board, which governs the public universities in the state. The terms of current Regents Amir Arbisser, Mary Ellen Becker, and Wahlert will expire later this year, and former Regent Tom Bedell resigned last month amid frustration with fellow regents and leaders of various university constituencies.

Culver has spoken with potential regents but has not made a final decision on Bedell's replacement, whom the Democrat governor plans to name before the other new appointees, said Brad Anderson, Culver's communications director.

Crucial qualities of future regents will be their commitment to public accountability and accessibility, the governor's spokesman said.

"He wants to change the tone," Anderson said. "Obviously, there have been some problems, and he wants to make sure his new picks can cooperate and work together."

Regents are citizen volunteers who are appointed to staggered six-year terms. At least one member has to be a full-time student at a state university when he or she is appointed, and no more than five regents can be of a particular political party.

The nominations need to pass Senate confirmation by April 15. Arbisser's, Becker's, and Wahlert's terms expire April 30.

Last week, the regents also approved Jean Robillard, the current dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine, as the UI's new vice president for medical affairs. In the three-year term, Robillard will report to the UI president in all UI matters related to health care.

The last person in a similar role was former UI Vice President for Health Affairs Robert Kelch, who left in 2003 to become the University of Michigan's executive vice president of medical affairs and head of the school's health system.